Due to the sudden demise of one of my monitors I was obliged to buy a new one.
The new one listed amongst its attributes the fact that it had an "Environmentally Friendly Design". Naturally one takes these claims with a pinch of salt.
However, I have noticed that, whenever a portion of environment passes by, the monitor smiles in its direction and give it a gentle wave.
Of course the real joy was that I could just plug it in, and without farting about with an installation CD, it took to Ubuntu like a duck takes to water. Well done LInus!!

My old 1280x1024 LCD monitor died a few days ago after sterling service for many years. I took delivery today of a widescreen 1440x900 Hanns-G monitor, plugged it in and it all works at correct resolution with no action on my part of any kind.

I was a little anxious as my hardware is not new and I have an old ATI 9200SE graphic card using the open source radeon driver, but even with that setup the system managed to detect the new hardware, and get everything right for me.

Best one for me was when my old eeepc (XP) struggled for half an hour to accept the output to an interactive whiteboard. In the end it refused to display on the laptop screen if I wanted it on the whiteboard, then when it was disconnected and rebooted, it crashed and needed a full reinstall.

2 months later, same laptop running Ubuntu (I forget the version number), plugged in recognised immediately and had no problems running from both. The only issue for me was that the laptop screen switched to 4:3 mode to match the whiteboard.

I haven't been that lucky none of the recent distros Iv'e tried will recognize my Acer S243HL 24" 1920x1082 native res but then even Win7 needs the files from the CD that came with it no problem with my other Acer X193W monitor.

lok1950 wrote:I haven't been that lucky none of the recent distros Iv'e tried will recognize my Acer S243HL 24" 1920x1082 native res but then even Win7 needs the files from the CD that came with it no problem with my other Acer X193W monitor.

To the original point, claims that something is "environmentally friendly" has become a factor that I now react against like a Pavlov dog to a buzzer before an electric shock. It can mean that it is flimsy (uses less plastic), won't last long (it can be "recycled"), limp wristed (saves power), or made of sh~t (I've seen that literally).

I was shocked when I went to buy paint recently to find that it has become "environmentally friendly" - it is now hard to find anything except emulsion paint. You are meant to use emulsion paint (touted as "odourless") even outside and on wood (raises the grain) and metal (rusts). The only oil paint that I could find (labelled "weather resistant") seems regarded as "industrial" and only available in basic colours (white, black, bright red/blue/green) - as opposed to a thousand variants of magnolia in the emusions. Even these remaining oil paints are of crippled functionality (Google for moans about this). Maybe exterior emusion paint is passable in the warmer drier parts of the EU (where peeling paint has always seemed part of the ambience) but not in the damp cold place I live.

I have even seen wood burning stoves touted as "green" - apparently because of the connection with trees. But to chop down trees - the very icon of the green movement - burn them as fuel, and then claim it is environmentally friendly, surely takes the biscuit.

Unsolved mysteries of the Universe, No 13 :-
How many remakes of Anna Karenina does the World need?

To the original point, claims that something is "environmentally friendly" has become a factor that I now react against like a Pavlov dog to a buzzer before an electric shock. It can mean that it is flimsy (uses less plastic), won't last long (it can be "recycled"), limp wristed (saves power), or made of sh~t (I've seen that literally).

I was shocked when I went to buy paint recently to find that it has become "environmentally friendly" - it is now hard to find anything except emulsion paint. You are meant to use emulsion paint (touted as "odourless") even outside and on wood (raises the grain) and metal (rusts). The only oil paint that I could find (labelled "weather resistant") seems regarded as "industrial" and only available in basic colours (white, black, bright red/blue/green) - as opposed to a thousand variants of magnolia in the emusions. Even these remaining oil paints are of crippled functionality (Google for moans about this). Maybe exterior emusion paint is passable in the warmer drier parts of the EU (where peeling paint has always seemed part of the ambience) but not in the damp cold place I live.

I have even seen wood burning stoves touted as "green" - apparently because of the connection with trees. But to chop down trees - the very icon of the green movement - burn them as fuel, and then claim it is environmentally friendly, surely takes the biscuit.

Get some Dulux Trade paint which still comes in oil based versions, though I agree that water based paint is very much more common now than it used to be, even outdoor paint. However, it is not emulsion paint, and does not work like emulsion paint. Try some quick drying versions (ie water based) of Weathershield outdoor paint and you may be surprised.

I offer this not as a Dulux employee but as a long time Dulux user (Painter & Decorator), and I realise that this has nothing at all to do with Linux. However, I thought it might be useful to you.